Facebook Inc (FB) And Its Impact On The Global Economy

Facebook is the world’s largest social network at present, and it has a very significant impact on the global economy, according to a Facebook-commissioned study. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) supported 4.5 million jobs in 2014 around the world and has contributed $227 billion to the global economy, claims the study’s researchers.

Impact of Facebook (FB) on the U.S., U.K.

The study conducted by Deloitte was released on Tuesday, and it revealed that the social networking giant had a $100 billion impact on the U.S. economy and supported as many as 1 million jobs. After the U.S., the second biggest benefactor of Facebook is the U.K., with 154,000 Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)-supported jobs and an economic impact of $11 billion.

The study conducted by Deloitte and its findings are not based on Facebook’s 8,000 employees. Instead, it focused on how third parties benefit from it. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is a social networking platform through which third parties benefit from marketing activities, creating third-party apps and engaging in Web businesses. The social networking giant is a good mode of reaching out to customers and also reduces marketing barriers along with supporting entrepreneurship, claims the study’s authors.

Three types of impact studied

Three items were measured by the study, according to Deloitte: direct impact, supply chain impact and employee-spending impact. The research firm also studied the “marketing effect” and its “ripple effects” to determine the contribution of Facebook through its corporate pages, advertising and referrals.

There are several companies that “use Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) or whose products and services are used to access it,” and the gross revenues of such companies are measured by direct impact. Several business activities use or leverage Facebook and in turn lead to increases in demand, which is described as supply chain impact. Finally, the employee spending impact takes into account the money spent by employees at companies that work at “businesses that use Facebook and at their suppliers.”

Recently, a trend has been among companies to sponsor studies showing their economic impact. In 2012, Apple came out with a similar study. The results of the study cannot necessarily be relied upon, as the calculations used may be questionable. Also it is not easy to figure out what prompts consumers to spend money and what exactly drove the growth of companies, as it is not easy to gauge all this.

As of now, there is no comment on Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) on the study.

Author: Aman JainAman is MBA (Finance) with an experience on both Marketing and Finance side. He has worked as a Risk Analyst for AIR Worldwide, and is currently leading VeRa FinServ, a Financial Research firm. Favorite pastimes include watching science fiction movies, reviewing tech gadgets, playing PC games and cricket.